15 years for killing epileptic daughter (7) ‘to save her’

A 32-year-old Mpumalanga man has been sentenced to 15 years in jail for brutally murdering his seven-year-old epileptic daughter.

Sonnyboy Mnisi from KaMhlushwa near Malalane allegedly killed the girl when she had a seizure at his house on August 16 last year.

Mnisi told the Nelspruit Circuit Court he had killed little Ayanda, a Grade 1 pupil, because he wanted to save her from her condition.

Mnisi confessed in a statement that he had hit her head against a cement floor and throttled her in his bedroom. He, however, did not plead guilty to additional counts of raping and sodomising the child, but a doctor’s report found that she had been penetrated.

Ayanda was staying with her grandmother (Mnisi’s mother) in Boschfontein as her mother died in 2008. Mnisi fetched her to visit him, only to kill her at around 1am.

Judge Ebenhaezer Jordaan described the assault as “brutal”.

“I can’t find that the murder was pre-planned. As to the nature of the offence, it was a brutal assault on a seven-year-old child. He hit her [head] on a cement floor and throttled her, which was confirmed by his plea and medical evidence,” Jordaan said.

Mnisi phoned his mother and informed her of what had happened after the incident, but he left his house, with the doors open, and the girl lying on his bedroom floor. He was emotional and crying when relatives found him, and he apologised.

Jordaan sentenced Mnisi to three years for the rape counts but Mnisi’s lawyer, Advocate Nico du Plessis, successfully applied for leave to appeal this sentence, which Jordaan granted.

Mnisi denied raping the girl and the court could not determine if Ayanda had been raped while still alive or after she had died.

Join the conversation!

24.com encourages commentary submitted via MyNews24. Contributions of 200 words or more will be considered for publication.

We reserve editorial discretion to decide what will be published. Read our comments policy for guidelines on contributions.

24.com publishes all comments posted on articles provided that they adhere to our Comments Policy. Should you wish to report a comment for editorial review, please do so by clicking the 'Report Comment' button to the right of each comment.

Tell us a bit about yourself:

Saving your profile

Settings

News24 allows you to edit the display of certain components based on a location.
If you wish to personalise the page based on your preferences, please select a
location for each component and click "Submit" in order for the changes to
take affect.

Your Location*

Weather*

Always remember my setting

Saving your settings

Facebook Sign-In

Hi News addict,

Join the News24 Community to be involved in breaking the news.

Log in with Facebook to comment and personalise news, weather and listings.